\n The 18-year-old spoke to the media on Thursday\n <\/p>\n
Adelaide draftee Mitchell Marsh says being able to don the same AFL colours as his father will be a dream come true.<\/p>\n
The Crows selected the 191cm South Australian forward with Pick No.22 in the first round of the Telstra AFL Draft on Wednesday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Marsh will continue his family’s legacy at the Club, with his father, Ben, playing 48 games across six seasons and featuring in the 1998 premiership.<\/p>\n
Speaking to the media on Thursday, Marsh said pulling on the tri-colours had been a life-long dream.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve grown up supporting them (the Crows) my whole life, my Dad played for them, so to be able to wear those same colours is surreal,\u201d Marsh said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy Dad has given me plenty of great advice throughout my journey, since I was a kid he always talked to me on the car ride home from games about how I went and where I could improve.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been really good for my development and I wouldn\u2019t be here without him.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
His father isn\u2019t the only sportsperson to give Marsh inspiration throughout his journey to the AFL.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 18-year-old shares a name with Australian white-ball cricket Captain Mitch Marsh, who earlier in the year sent a video message of support for the draft hopeful on the AFL\u2019s Gettable program.<\/p>\n
He said he enjoyed the fanfare of sharing a name with the popular cricketer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been really good, the attention is always nice and he\u2019s always someone I\u2019ve looked up to,\u201d Marsh said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving the same name as me I\u2019ve always supported him and I\u2019ve been a big cricket fan and played a lot of cricket throughout my life.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTo see him (get around me a bit) it\u2019s pretty cool, that video he did with Gettable was great, I had a lot of people send that to me and have a laugh – it\u2019s pretty special he did that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Marsh enjoyed a standout 2025 season, booting 12 goals in four games for South Australia in the Marsh AFL National Under-18 Boys Championships and leading West Adelaide to the SANFL under-18 grand final.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Although he starred in attack in his draft season, Marsh said his versatility meant he wasn\u2019t only limited to the forward line.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t really mind which position I play, I played a lot more forward this year but I can also go on a wing or to half back,\u201d Marsh said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere isn\u2019t one specific player I\u2019ve modelled my game on, I\u2019ve tried to take little bits from lots of different players I\u2019ve watched along the journey and become the best player I can be really.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can do a bit of everything and am happy to play wherever the team needs me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Marsh will begin his first AFL pre-season next Monday, when the Crows\u2019 one-to-four year players return to training.<\/p>\n
He said the goal will be to adapt to his new environment as quickly as possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst off I just want to fit in, get to know everyone and just feel comfortable in the AFL environment,\u201d Marsh said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPlaying an AFL game is the ultimate goal, I\u2019m not sure how long that will take, whether that\u2019s next year or in the next few years, I\u2019m not sure.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want to develop my game and fit in well with the team and the culture.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 18-year-old spoke to the media on Thursday Adelaide draftee Mitchell Marsh says being able to don the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85,83],"class_list":{"0":"post-296474","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-text"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}